The subject of the present invention is a hinge for a motor vehicle rear door.
Certain motor vehicles such as utility vehicles of the light van type for example, are equipped with rear doors that can be moved between a closed position and an open position lying against the side of the body of the vehicle so as to give full access to the loading platform and not project significantly beyond the width of this vehicle during the loading and unloading operations.
In order to allow the door to pivot between the two extreme positions, this door is equipped with a hinge which comprises a fixed knuckle mounted on the body of the vehicle, a moving knuckle mounted on the door, and an intermediate knuckle connected to each of the said knuckles by a hinge pin so as to allow the said door to pivot through approximately 250xc2x0.
The hinge comprises an immobilizing member collaborating with each of the hinge pins to lock them alternately in terms of rotation and, in succession, allow the moving knuckle to pivot about its hinge pin to an angle of between 0 and 180xc2x0, then allow the assembly consisting of the intermediate knuckle and the moving knuckle to pivot about the hinge pin of the fixed knuckle to an angle of between about 180 and 250xc2x0.
In the hinges used until now, the immobilizing member is formed of a part held on the intermediate knuckle by means of two screw-fastening elements each of which passes through this part via an oblong hole.
When the door is opened, the immobilizing member slides and successively immobilizes the two hinge pins by coming into contact with a flat formed on each of these hinge pins so as, first, to allow the moving knuckle to pivot by itself and, second, to allow the assembly formed by the moving knuckle and the intermediate knuckle to pivot.
As the door is closed, the immobilizing member first of all immobilizes the hinge pin of the moving knuckle so as to allow the assembly formed of the moving knuckle and the intermediate knuckle to pivot about the hinge pin of the fixed knuckle and then immobilizes the hinge pin of the fixed knuckle so as to allow only the moving knuckle to pivot about its hinge pin.
This type of assembly of the immobilizing member on the intermediate knuckle has the drawback of entailing the drilling of a hole in the intermediate knuckle and the machining of the oblong hole in this immobilizing member, and operations of assembling these various parts.
The object of the invention is to avoid these drawbacks.
To this end, the subject of the invention is a hinge for a motor vehicle rear door, of the type comprising:
a fixed knuckle mounted on the body of the vehicle,
a moving knuckle mounted on the rear door, which door can be moved between a closed position and an open position lying against the side of the said body,
an intermediate knuckle connected to each of the said knuckles by a hinge pin placed in a bushing secured to the corresponding knuckle and having a flat on its outer face,
an immobilizing member collaborating with the said flats to alternately immobilize the two bushings in terms of rotation and successively allow the moving knuckle to pivot about its hinge pin, then allow the assembly consisting of the intermediate knuckle and the moving knuckle to pivot about the hinge pin of the fixed knuckle as the rear door is opened and, conversely, as this door is closed, characterized in that the intermediate knuckle is formed of a plate comprising two parallel cheeks perpendicular to the said plate, and the immobilizing member is formed of a link rod held in position by one of the cheeks of the intermediate knuckle and the said bushings, the said link rod being moveable in a sliding manner as the bushing of the hinge pin of the moving knuckle rotates between two positions in contact, alternately, with the flat of each bushing.
According to other features of the invention:
the link rod comprises, at each of its ends, a fork for positioning on the corresponding bushing and of which the width between the inner faces of the two branches is approximately equal to the outside diameter of this bushing,
the length of the link rod between the bottoms of the two forks is approximately equal to the distance separating a flat of one of the bushings from a cylindrical portion of the other of the said bushings,
when the rear door is in the closed position, the flat of the bushing of the fixed knuckle is in contact with the bottom of the corresponding fork of the link rod and the flat of the bushing of the moving knuckle is on the outside of the corresponding fork of the said link rod and runs parallel to the flat of the bushing of the said fixed knuckle.